Cross from the Mission of the Guardian Angel

This Cross is reportedly from the 1696 Mission of the Guardian Angel, which was a 17th-century Jesuit mission in the area of what is now Chicago, Illinois. It was established in 1696 by Father François Pinet, a French Jesuit priest. The exact location of the Mission of the Guardian Angel in unknown but various historians have proposed a number of sites in the Chicago area.

In the 17th century, the Chicago area was inhabited by some Algonquian peoples, including the Mascouten and Miami tribes. French Jesuit missionaries exploring the Great Lakes region first encountered these tribes in the 1650s. In 1696, Pinet established the Mission of the Guardian Angel, however, sometime after 1700, the Miamis started to move to Indiana, and the mission was abandoned.

Pierre François Pinet was born in France in 1660, travelled to Canada in 1694 and died due to unkown circumstances near St. Louis, Missouri in 1702, while working with the local tribes.